A method for traffic monitoring, vehicle speed determination, and traffic light violation detection and recording is disclosed. In one embodiment of the current invention, the method is arranged for monitoring traffic supported by a designated surface of a roadway, detecting individual vehicles, measuring vehicle speeds, identifying potential traffic violators, and triggering a traffic imaging device such as a camera or a video system. Different embodiments of the system can also be used by law enforcement agencies and research groups for other applications such as measurement of traffic density, monitoring vehicle speed, and studying traffic patterns. One application of particular embodiments of the current invention is to enforce red light violations. The systems of those embodiments rely on eye-safe laser radiation and scattering of such radiation off the road surface to determine the presence of a vehicle, calculate its speed, determine when a violation is likely to occur (based on predetermined criteria), and trigger the traffic imaging device for collecting evidence of the violation.
Installing traffic monitoring and photo-enforcement systems of prior art may involve digging traffic surfaces and pavements in order to install cables for interfacing the violation detecting/recording system with the traffic control devices for synchronization. Such an arrangement, for example, can make a prior art red light photo-enforcement system at least a semi-permanent installation for a specific approach at an intersection. In contrast, the disclosed exemplary methods of the current invention may not utilize wired connections between one or more mobile traffic monitoring and recording modules and at least one traffic information processing center arranged to securely receive and process transmitted portion of the stored traffic information in order to communicate the status of the monitored traffic.
In addition, for an enhancement of the security and confidentiality of the collected information, the transmitted portion of the traffic information does not include personal or other sensitive information. The method of current invention may incorporate secure wireless transfer only of traffic information which is available to general public observers at least by observation of traffic on public roads or other publicly accessible surfaces designated for public transportation. Therefore, the methods of current invention exhibits inherent security regarding steps of transfer and subsequent processing of collected information.
Also, steps of processing of the recorded information may be optimized for human control or supervision intended to determine errors or insufficiency of transmitted portions of traffic information resulting in interruption of the processing of the transmitted traffic information before subsequent steps of obtaining and associating of personalized of proprietary information with the transmitted portion of traffic information which may further enhance security and confidentiality of information processing.